Forgiveness: the drafting process

I drafted a poem the other day in response to the prompt “forgiveness,” and the way it unfolded/evolved in my notebook was kind of interesting. It is my hope that you will find it mildly interesting, too.

the way your teeth sink
into the flesh of a mango ripethe skin yielding
mango, the skin yielding
without protest
the

***

your teeth sink
into the fleshy ripeness
of a mango the skin yields
unprotesting before the sweetnessdribbles down your throatand over your chin
trickles down the back
of your throat dribbles
over your chin to stain the neck
of your t-shirt

***

your teeth sink
through the fleshy ripeness
of a mango the skin yields
unprotesting before the sweetness
trickles down the back
of your throat dribbles
over your chin to stain
the neck of your t-shirt

***

your teeth sink
through the fleshy ripeness
the skin yields
unprotesting before the sweetness
trickles down the back
of your tongue, dribbles
over your chin to stain
the throat of your shirt

***

your teeth sink through fleshy
ripeness as skin yields
unprotesting before the sweetness
trickles along the back
of your tongue, dribbles
down your chin to pool
at the base of your throat

***

teeth sink through fleshy
ripeness as skin yields
unprotesting before the sweetness
trickles along the back
of the tongue and dribbles
down the chin to pool
at the base of the throat

***

teeth sink through fleshy
ripeness as skin yields
unprotesting before sweetness
trickles along back
of tongue and dribbles
down chin to pool
at base of throat

***

Forgiveness

teeth sink through fleshy
ripeness as skin yields
unprotesting before sweetness
trickles along back
of tongue and dribbles down
to pool at base of throat